Wearables: Nancy Tobin

Photographer: Jennifer Young Photography

Model: Wamuhu Waweru

Location: Moonstone Beach, Trinidad, Ca

Domestic Disturbance: : A Surreal Climate Change Experiential

I grew up a military brat and experienced a great deal of displacement. I also got to experience many different cultures, landscapes and climates. My childhood was spent playing in the sweaty, tangled jungles, caves and concrete bunkers on post-war Okinawa, to exploring the thin forests of Virginia that patiently digested the leftovers of past homesteads, to the dehydrated deserts of Arizona, where sand storms regularly plugged the man made swimming pores that pocked nearly every inch on the skin of the exploding cities. There was a lot to see. Which was good. There was a lot I did not want to feel. I frequently lived in the landscape of my inner making. Residing there, I could keep everything I owned. No one ever parted. And I had a code: to be so self-sufficient no one would ever tell me what to do, or cause me pain. When you don’t let anyone else run the show, the job becomes yours, which I preferred. I modeled my lifestyle after Gilligan’s Island, where survival depended upon your own creative problem solving. You made everything by hand, preferably from bamboo. My recipe for success is this: start where you are with what you have on hand and build from there. Apply yourself consistently. Eventually you will create something grand. Something from nothing. Something like an installation that brings to life the psychological landscape where most of me resides.

December, 2017

The Umbilical Cord Series started out as a wedding joke between my daughter and I. I made an umbilical cord with a secondary section that we ceremoniously presented to her groom during the wedding, thereby inviting (allowing) him to join our forever bond. Everyone said yes. Some were more amused than others.

Wearables: Nancy Tobin

Photography: Jennifer Young Photography

Model: Wamuhu Waweru

Hair Dryers, Sewn Plastic Bags, Rope, Lights, Humidifiers, Timers, Afghans, Rope, Settee, Music Box, Ironing Boards, Coffee Makers, Telephones, Glasses, Ladder, Extension Cords

Paper, Staples, Disco Ball Turners, Obsessive Behavior

15x25x12

Single wave form intersects every room of my house.

Recurrent nightmare of being chased by tornadoes.

I grew up a military brat.

We moved a lot, which explains a lot.